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Windows 7: Non-random BSOD "Clock Interrupt was not received..."

So I just built my first computer. Everything went good for about 3 hours. I installed the OS, updated drivers, installed basic programs, ran the Windows Experience Index thingy, booted Anno 1404 and tested a variety of high graphics settings,so on and so forth, and everything was good.

Until on one of my reboots, I went into the BIOS and changed the setting from Normal to Performance mode (I'm running a Asus Sabertooth 990FX motherboard). Then I booted and ran the Experience Index program again to see if anything would change. This time, when it was checking CPU performance, it BSOD'ed. "Clock Interrupt was not received on a secondary processor within the allocated time interval".

I went into the BIOS and changed the setting back to Normal mode and then tried the WEI again. BSOD. I tried 1404 again and it crashed. I ran OCCT for my CPU and everything was good. Ran it on my GPU and it was good. I ran FurMark for my GPU, fine. But if I use OCCT to stress my CPU and FurMark to stress my GPU at the same time: "Clock Interrupt was not received on a secondary processor within the allocated time interval".

So far, I've come up with 2 theories.

1. My GT440 graphics card is trying to pull too much power from my motherboard and crashing (the GT440 doesn't have external power), or

2. My processor is bad

I'll run more tests tomorrow to see if any alternate configurations have a different effect. Until then, I'll leave you with my specs and thank you in advance for any help.

We do need the DMP file as it contains the only record of the sequence of events leading up to the crash, what drivers were loaded, and what was responsible.

If you are overclocking STOP

We could also use some system information, which you can get easily by running msinfo32.
To do that go to start>run>type msinfo32>enter

When it is finished running go to file>save>name it and upload to us here.

You may be able to get the DMP files without crashing by booting into safe mode (F8) with networking.

To enable us to assist you with your computer's BSOD symptoms, upload the contents of your "\Windows\Minidump" folder.

The procedure:

Quote:

* Copy the contents of \Windows\Minidump to another (temporary) location somewhere on your machine.
* Zip up the copy.
* Attach the ZIP archive to your post using the "paperclip" (file attachments) button.
*If the files are too large please upload them to a file sharing service like "Rapidshare" and put a link to them in your reply.

To ensure minidumps are enabled:

Quote:

* Go to Start, in the Search Box type: sysdm.cpl, press Enter.
* Under the Advanced tab, click on the Startup and Recovery Settings... button.
* Ensure that Automatically restart is unchecked.
* Under the Write Debugging Information header select Small memory dump (256 kB) in the dropdown box (the 256kb varies).
* Ensure that the Small Dump Directory is listed as %systemroot%\Minidump.
* OK your way out.
* Reboot if changes have been made.

Here are the dump files. There was originally just the first one so I changed the settings like you said and then used the stress tests to crash the system. The moment I start the second test, everything freezes but I didn't get the BSOD this time, it just never recovered.

And just to clarify, I don't overclock. Ever.

EDIT: New info. I setup and started OCCT to do a 24 hour burn in for my processor, nothing else running. It crashed within 5 seconds of starting. I've done it 3 times and the first 2 it didn't give me a BSOD or a dump file, it just froze and never recovered. The 3rd gave me a dump.

Here are the dump files. There was originally just the first one so I changed the settings like you said and then used the stress tests to crash the system. The moment I start the second test, everything freezes but I didn't get the BSOD this time, it just never recovered.

And just to clarify, I don't overclock. Ever.

EDIT: New info. I setup and started OCCT to do a 24 hour burn in for my processor, nothing else running. It crashed within 5 seconds of starting. I've done it 3 times and the first 2 it didn't give me a BSOD or a dump file, it just froze and never recovered. The 3rd gave me a dump.

Stop 0x124 is a hardware error.... if you are overclocking try resetting your processor to standard settings and see if that helps ... if you continue to get BSOD here are some more things you may want to consider ..

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Stop 0x124 - what it means and what to try
Synopsis:

A "stop 0x124" is fundamentally different to many other types of bluescreens because it stems from a hardware complaint. Stop 0x124 minidumps contain very little practical information, and it is therefore necessary to approach the problem as a case of hardware in an unknown state of distress.

Generic "Stop 0x124" Troubleshooting Strategy:
1) Ensure that none of the hardware components are overclocked. Hardware that is driven beyond its design specifications - by overclocking - can malfunction in unpredictable ways.

2) Ensure that the machine is adequately cooled. If there is any doubt, open up the side of the PC case (be mindful of any relevant warranty conditions!) and point a mains fan squarely at the motherboard. That will rule out most (lack of) cooling issues.

3) Update all hardware-related drivers: video, sound, RAID (if any), NIC... anything that interacts with a piece of hardware. It is good practice to run the latest drivers anyway.

4) Update the motherboard BIOS according to the manufacturer's instructions. Their website should provide detailed instructions as to the brand and model-specific procedure.

5) Rarely, bugs in the OS may cause "false positive" 0x124 events where the hardware wasn't complaining but Windows thought otherwise (because of the bug). At the time of writing, Windows 7 is not known to suffer from any such defects, but it is nevertheless important to always keep Windows itself updated.

6) Attempt to (stress) test those hardware components which can be put through their paces artificially. The most obvious examples are the RAM and HDD(s). For the RAM, use the in-built memory diagnostics (run MDSCHED) or the 3rd-party memtest86 utility to run many hours worth of testing. For hard drives, check whether CHKDSK /R finds any problems on the drive(s), notably "bad sectors". Unreliable RAM, in particular, is deadly as far as software is concerned, and anything other than a 100% clear memory test result is cause for concern. Unfortunately, even a 100% clear result from the diagnostics utilities does not guarantee that the RAM is free from defects - only that none were encountered during the test passes.

7) As the last of the non-invasive troubleshooting steps, perform a "vanilla" reinstallation of Windows: just the OS itself without any additional applications, games, utilities, updates, or new drivers - NOTHING AT ALL that is not sourced from the Windows 7 disc. Should that fail to mitigate the 0x124 problem, jump to the next steps. Otherwise, if you run the "vanilla" installation long enough to convince yourself that not a single 0x124 crash has occurred, start installing updates and applications slowly, always pausing between successive additions long enough to get a feel for whether the machine is still free from 0x124 crashes. Should the crashing resume, obviously the very last software addition(s) may be somehow linked to the root cause.
If stop 0x124 errors persist despite the steps above, and the harware is under warranty, consider returning it and requesting a replacement which does not suffer periodic MCE events. Be aware that attempting the subsequent harware troubleshooting steps may, in some cases, void your warranty:
8) Clean and carefully remove any dust from the inside of the machine. Reseat all connectors and memory modules. Use a can of compressed air to clean out the RAM DIMM sockets as much as possible.

9) If all else fails, start removing items of hardware one-by-one in the hope that the culprit is something non-essential which can be removed. Obviously, this type of testing is a lot easier if you've got access to equivalent components in order to perform swaps.

Should you find yourself in the situation of having performed all of the steps above without a resolution of the symptom, unfortunately the most likely reason is because the error message is literally correct - something is fundamentally wrong with the machine's hardware.

These are from the two 0x124 bugcheck minidumps. It may very well be core 5 (6th core) that's causing the fault. Bus errors do typically come from memory failure (check with Memtest86+ for 7+ passes) or motherboard northbridge chipset failure, but the 0x101 bugchecks hint more towards CPU failure as zigzag suspects. Also, I've seen that most software that comes installed with motherboards have bugs that actually show these problems, even if these types of bugchecks are hardware-based. Make sure to uninstall any and all software that came with your motherboard (including monitoring software) and only leave the drivers (chipset, audio, etc.) intact (update them too while yer at it). I've seen video card failure do this as well (albeit very rare), and BIOS problems also, make sure to update video card drivers and your BIOS.

Thanks to both of you. I also came to the conclusion that it was CPU failure. Most of the possible fixes mentioned by Zigzag were tried either actively or passively due to the fact that it was a new build and install and those are the kinds of things that I do with a new install. I'll be sure to specifically try all of your suggestions ASAP, but it will be a few days.

After I came to the conclusion that my CPU was to blame, I pulled (just about) everything out of the case. I'm having the motherboard and CPU replaced and changing the video card. I'm pretty sure that the problem isn't heat related since I could use basic programs indefinitely but it crashed within 3 seconds of the start of a CPU test. Also, I am using a Cooler Master High Air Flow case with a Cooler Master 212 EVO CPU cooler. Last night, when I successfully ran the CPU stress test for an hour, my infrared thermometer said that the base of my cooler never got above 40c and my case fans, which are controlled by the motherboard, never sped up. I'm not a tech guru but it doesn't sound like overheating to me. And, as I said, I never overclock.

It looks like I'll get my replacements about next Wednesday and I'll have an update within a few hours of then. Thanks again for the help.

Thanks to both of you. I also came to the conclusion that it was CPU failure. Most of the possible fixes mentioned by Zigzag were tried either actively or passively due to the fact that it was a new build and install and those are the kinds of things that I do with a new install. I'll be sure to specifically try all of your suggestions ASAP, but it will be a few days.

After I came to the conclusion that my CPU was to blame, I pulled (just about) everything out of the case. I'm having the motherboard and CPU replaced and changing the video card. I'm pretty sure that the problem isn't heat related since I could use basic programs indefinitely but it crashed within 3 seconds of the start of a CPU test. Also, I am using a Cooler Master High Air Flow case with a Cooler Master 212 EVO CPU cooler. Last night, when I successfully ran the CPU stress test for an hour, my infrared thermometer said that the base of my cooler never got above 40c and my case fans, which are controlled by the motherboard, never sped up. I'm not a tech guru but it doesn't sound like overheating to me. And, as I said, I never overclock.

It looks like I'll get my replacements about next Wednesday and I'll have an update within a few hours of then. Thanks again for the help.

Well good luck and let us know if we can help. Infrared thermometer, I like. {grin}

Remember that infrared therms only record surface temperature. While the cooler is designed to attempt to distribute the heat evenly as much as possible, point of contact with the CPU die will always be the hottest compared to the rest of the cooler.

Me and zigzag both had a feeling it was going to end up being CPU related, but it is always best to make sure any other potential candidates - which are easier and cheaper to address - are taken care of before resorting to something more time and resource-consuming as swapping hardware with a replacement. That's just common sense. :)

Well, I'm back. I received my parts Friday afternoon so I rebuilt and started running tests. 28 hours of Memtest86+ produced 8 passes and 0 errors. I did a 15 minute benchmark burn-in on my video card with no problems, and a 25 hour burn-in on my processor with no problem.

After that completed, I went into the BIOS and changed the manufacturer's setting from "Normal" mode to "Performance" mode and rebooted. The first thing I ran was the Windows Experience Index thing and it crashed twice. Furmark ran fine but OCCT caused a BSOD within 3 seconds, just like last time. I changed the setting back to normal and tried OCCT again. This time it said "Error detected on core #-1" and crashed the program. I tried again and it BSOD'ed. I'm attaching the dump files, if you would be so kind as to read them for me but I have a feeling that it's going to be a malfunctioning core again.

Assuming that is the case, the solution that comes to mind is to get the processor replaced but also to change to a different motherboard, since apparently clicking one wrong (and very large) button in the BIOS is all it takes to destroy the processor.

Any advice is welcome.

UPDATE: Just for the sake of being though, I went into by BIOS and reset it. Now I can run OCCT without crashing or BSODing.

So you are no longer suffering any issues at all after you reset the BIOS to factory defaults? In that case, you may be overclocking it improperly ("Performance" settings on most mobo BIOSes are OCed settings) and/or you may have heating issues that could be caused by improper placement of the heatsink or improper paste application. Make sure to test your idle and high load temps with the BIOS and something like HWInfo to make sure that's not the case (make sure to check "Sensors only" at startup). If you wish, you can log an idle and high load session for us to look at as well.

Non-random BSOD "Clock Interrupt was not received..."

BSOD, a clock interrupt was not receivedon a secondary interrupt. I had this problem before, but was solved with changing power settings. But since the last update of tuesday from Windows, the problem reoccurs. I tried to change the power settings, but the problem persists. Can anyone help.
Thanks in advance

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